XBradTC

Sometimes, I get lucky. And sometimes, I’m just good!

The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Mason was fired on again in international waters off the coast of Yemen, but the ship deployed countermeasures and the vessel was not struck, two U.S. officials said.

The incident occurred late Saturday or early Sunday local time. At least one missile was fired, the officials said.

via www.nbcnews.com

That's the third attack on Mason this week.

The Houtis only have to get lucky once.

When there’s only 7 enemy ships, and you sink 6 of them, that’s a pretty impressive match!

The Pentagon says that a missile has been fired at U.S. Navy destroyer USS Mason off the coast of Yemen — for the second time in four days.

The Two-Way

The Deadly Consequences To Children Of Yemen's War

"At least one missile" originated from Houthi-controlled territory near the Red Sea port city of al-Hudaydah, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement to NPR's Tom Bowman.

"The ship employed defensive countermeasures, and the missile did not reach the USS Mason," the statement reads. "There was no damage to the ship or its crew." He adds that the ship employed "defensive countermeasures," without elaborating.

via www.npr.org

My SWO friends asked why Tomahawks, rather than naval gunfire.

Well, why close an active missile battery if you can stand off with Tomahawks?

A U.S. Navy destroyer was targeted on Wednesday in a failed missile attack from territory in Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, the second such incident in the past four days, U.S. officials told Reuters.

The USS Mason, which was accompanied by the USS Ponce – an amphibious transport dock – fired defensive salvos in response to the missiles, neither of which hit the ship or caused any damage as it operated north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The renewed attempt to target the U.S. Navy destroyer will add pressure on the U.S. military to retaliate, a move that would represent the first direct U.S. military action against Houthis in Yemen's conflict. The Pentagon hinted about possible retaliatory strikes on Tuesday.

via www.reuters.com

Again. This is not a double post.

I'm pretty sure the crew of USS Mason are on pins and needles.

Can a Burke class destroyer handle multiple missile attacks?

Yes.

But things only have to go pear shaped once for something like this to turn into a disaster.

There’s absolutely nothing I enjoy more when playing World of Warships that wiping out a cruiser with one salvo.

Nobody had so much as scratched the paint on this guy before I opened up on him.

The whole point of the Aegis radar/weapons control system was to give the Navy improved defenses against cruise missile attacks. Originally intended for the open stretches of the North Atlantic, in recent years, the system has been improved to counter low flying threats in littoral waters, which is just what Mason and Ponce faced the other day.

USNI News reports:

The crew of a guided-missile destroyer fired three missiles to defend themselves and another ship after being attacked on Sunday in the Red Sea by two presumed cruise missiles fired by Iran-backed Houthi-forces, USNI News has learned.

During the attack against USS Mason (DDG-87), the ship’s crew fired the missiles to defend the guided-missile destroyer and nearby USS Ponce (AFSB(I)-15) from two suspected cruise missiles fired from the Yemini shore, two defense officials told USNI News.

Mason launched two Standard Missile-2s (SM-2s) and a single Enhanced Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) to intercept the two missiles that were launched about 7 P.M. local time. In addition to the missiles, the ship used its Nulka anti-ship missile decoy, the sources confirmed. Mason was operating in international waters north of the strait of Bab el-Mandeb at the time of the attack.

According to a defense official on Monday, Mason “employed onboard defensive measures” against the first suspected cruise missile, “although it is unclear whether this led to the missile striking the water or whether it would have struck the water anyway.” The official did not specify that the defensive measure was a missile fired from the ship.

Read the whole thing. As noted elsewhere in the article, it isn’t known yet if any of the three missiles actually hit anything.

Of note, the Mason also deployed her Nulka, which is an interesting bit of kit. While the destroyer obviously has its radar to detect incoming missiles, very often the first indication of an inbound low flying cruise missile is the emissions from either its seeker head, or even its radar altimeter. The SLQ-32 ECM system on board the destroyer would then be used to cue the SPY-1 radar to search for the threat.  The SLQ-32 also cues the ships countermeasures, which can include chaff rockets and infrared flares, or, in this case, Nulka.

The Mk 53 Nulka is a rocket that the ship fires, and the rocket then hovers while using active jamming techniques to present the seeker with a false target.